


is this a bonding moment

by readyforthefall



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, aliens make surprisingly nice beds, keith is hot and lance is salty about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 06:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7880203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readyforthefall/pseuds/readyforthefall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>lance and keith need to get along; shiro is the space dad no one wants to disappoint. also, what a coincidence that the only way to get a bunch of aliens to trust you is to pretend your rival is dating you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	is this a bonding moment

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, this is my first voltron fic so i appreciate the read! kudos and/or comments are always appreciated, enjoy!

It shouldn’t have been that difficult of an assignment. All Lance would have to do was settle the terms of protection from the Galra with a vulnerable planet Allura and Coran had recently informed them about. Allura had warned him that the people there had a history of being skeptical to other species, as their planet’s resources and people had been exploited for several millennia.

“It’s possible they could be threatened by your presence. Keep in mind that we may send another paladin with you just in case,” Allura explained. Though Lance was more excited than anything to get off the ship and feel some fresh air (hopefully), the last thing he wanted to do was screw up in front of the princess. How would she ever inevitably fall for his charm if he messed an extremely important diplomatic mission for her?

“So what, Pidge will come along or something? They’re pretty non-threatening.” Lance flashed a smirk at Pidge, who in turn rolled their eyes.

“Nice try, but Coran already promised to let me fool around with some more tech in the ship today. Plus I’ve got to man the comms in case you need last-minute instructions,” they said, smug smile appearing. “And also? If that was a short joke, let me remind you that the last time we had to fight our way out of a mission, you tripped and hurt _yourself_ before actually wounding our assailants.” At this, Lance pouted and turned back to Allura.

“We’ve actually already decided, Lance. Keith can go along with you. It will prove to be a very good ‘bonding’ mission, as well.” She stated matter-of-factly.

Lance sputtered, trying to find any words to say, any _at all._ Keith glared at him from across the room, clearly not happy with the situation either. _Anyone_ would have been better. If Lance didn’t end up threatening the people, he would be threatening Keith instead. They couldn’t go a minute without finding something to argue about. He was just so…

Infuriating. Yep, that was the word.

“I don’t know how you expect us to keep peace with these people, let alone each other! Lance can’t keep his act together for a second!” Keith protested to anyone who would hear him.

At that, Lance shot a glare at Keith. Seriously? Did he need to remind Keith who had _dropped out of the Garrison?_ Lance felt he was clearly the more reliable one here.

Shiro frowned disapprovingly at them both. “See, this is the problem. You two don’t even bother to try to get along. Were we wrong to trust you for this mission?”

The two paladins quickly shut up and glanced at each other. Yes, Keith was insufferable and a know-it-all. Not to mention, he never appreciated anything Lance did! When they (Lance) had saved Shiro, Keith couldn’t even have been bothered to remember his name.  And yet, they both seemed to agree on at least one thing: they couldn’t let down Shiro, and especially not Allura. She had been the one to bring them all together, trusting them to defend the people who feared the Galra. They wouldn’t let her efforts be in vain.

“We’ll get it done.” Lance said defiantly before marching back to his room.

* * *

On the day of the assignment, Coran gave them a few last instructions. The air on Gulera was perfectly breathable, so the two paladins would be able to roam freely without their suits. It was possible that even with all their best efforts, Coran had told them, that the Guels would require a day or two to consider their negotiations.

“You may be invited to reside in their palace a few days. I expect they’ll have something prepared for you, so you should be perfectly comfortable and get the rest you need after a good day of negotiations,” he said cheerfully as they approached the planet. “Oh, and by the way, we’ve found they respond very well to affection!”

“So what, we hug them?” Lance asked, confused.  He readied his helmet in his hands for the trip over, then noticed Keith had already put his on. The best thing about these helmets was the mess they made of Keith’s stupid, unnaturally perfect mullet. _So_ stupid.

“Oh no, not towards them; they’re quite a reserved species. That may actually offend them!”

So who were they hugging?  Lance drew his eyebrows together, worry starting to pile up in his stomach. Though Coran’s tone was as cheery as always, he couldn’t help but feel that some curveball was about to be thrown at them.

“Wouldn’t want to do that,” Keith grumbled, arms crossed against his chest.

“What I meant was that you have to show affection to _each other_. It will make them feel as if they can trust you.” Coran explained. Lance’s stomach tied up in knots at the thought of touching Keith _anywhere_. Gross. How were they going to make this convincing if Keith made Lance feel like he was going to vomit- or possibly explode?

“But why would they believe that? Lance doesn’t even like me and I’ve gotta say, I’m not too fond of the idea of _hugging him_.”

Coran frowned.  He turned his attention back to the ship’s controls, trying to come up with an answer. An uncomfortable silence took hold over the whole crew. Lance wanted so badly to be mad at everyone else, to yell at them for putting him up to this, but he couldn’t stand to see Shiro upset or the other paladins frustrated because he and Keith couldn’t get along. Finally, Hunk spoke up.

“Why don’t you guys just pretend you’re in a relationship?”

Immediately, Lance and Keith began to protest and argue while Hunk put his hands up in a surrender, claiming it was “just a suggestion.” To Lance’s horror, the others agreed with Hunk, saying that would initiate a believable front. Lance could not believe his eyes. Before he could open his mouth to complain some more, Shiro cut him off.

“Seriously, you two, it’s only a couple of days at most. _Just pretend._ It doesn’t mean you’re getting married or something.” Lance felt his face burning red and couldn’t bring himself to look at Keith. If he did… Lance wasn’t sure what he would do. Every part of his body felt like it was on fire- perhaps from anger, or maybe embarrassment. He sighed in defeat and prepared himself to embark on his (their) mission.

* * *

 It was already late when Keith and Lance arrived, not giving much time to actually negotiate. The Guels offered an extravagant meal for the two of them; their differences were forgotten for a short time as they ate as much as they could. It was surprisingly good, as far as alien food went. Ever since leaving  
Earth, Lance deeply missed _flan de piña, saladitos,_ and _maduros._ Nothing ever compared to the dinners he ate at home with his family, his _real_ family, with warm sunsets filling the room and loud laughter complimenting the unbelievable food.

God, he wished he could go home.

Keith kept giving him strange looks during the meal, especially after Lance zoned out while thinking about Earth. He accused Keith of staring at his _irresistible_ face; Keith scowled and said the last thing he’d do to Lance’s face was stare at it.

It turned out that there was a room provided for them in the surprisingly homey palace. Lance couldn’t wait to go the hell to sleep and ignore Keith for the rest of the trip; his butt was sore from the hard seats at dinner. The space given to them was actually pretty large, and they both silently walked around in awe until they approached what seemed to be the one and _only_ bedroom. Lance cursed softly.

“Well, are you gonna go in or not?” Keith deadpanned. Lance scoffed and opened the door.

“Yeah, since a whole day of your _stupidness_ made tired as hell,” Lance retorted, then took a look around. He quickly realized there also only happened to be one bed. Great. “What the shit?” he breathed.

Admittedly, it was a nice sleeping space. Fluffy pillows (it appeared that the need for head support was present in nearly every planet), numerous blankets, and a decent amount of room to spread out. If it was one person sleeping alone.

“Oh, no. No way am I sleeping with the most annoying person in the universe!” Keith exclaimed. Lance scoffed and thought of giving Keith a piece of his mind before thinking of how they were supposed to be getting along, or whatever. He sighed.

“Well, give ‘em some credit. They think we’re a couple.” Lance said, though he felt no better about it than Keith did. He probably stole all the blankets in his sleep and snored or something. Keith stormed off, shouting about how he was going to change so don’t come out of the bedroom.

“Wait…” Lance stopped him as he scoured the room frantically. “We didn’t bring any extra clothes, Keith.”

“You’ve got to be _kidding_ me!”

The two begrudgingly agreed to sleep in their boxers and never talk about it again. Keith said he would sleep on the floor, and Lance felt a little… bad for him? He knew how it felt to wake up aching all over because there weren’t enough places to sleep: his sisters frequently had sleepovers and took his mattress to accommodate their friends. Oh, well. Keith’s funeral.

All the while, Lance tried not to fume about how absolutely unfair it was that Keith had stupid, perfectly toned muscles all over and pretty much the best abs he’d ever seen. Must have been all that training. Lance was definitely _not_ thinking about Keith, sweaty and breathing hard from a long round of sparring. Nope. Definitely not. Lance tried to settle into the fairly large bed but now found he was much too hot. He threw off the covers in frustration and peered over at Keith, who was sprawled out on the ground with his sheet tossed aside, looking equally uncomfortable.

“It’s hot as balls in here,” Lance groaned. Keith grunted a response, slowly sitting up and wiping the sweat off his forehead. Lance felt a surge of pity yet again as he thought about the fact that Keith must have been doubly uncomfortable. Keith might have been his rival, but Lance wasn’t about to torture him with an awful night’s sleep. “Uh, Keith, you can come up here too, if you want… I don’t want you to complain all day tomorrow about how much your back hurts or something. You’re already annoying enough.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, but still got up and made towards the bed.

“Thanks, I guess.” Keith stretched his sore muscles (and Lance _definitely_ did not watch) and climbed onto the opposite side. “Ugh, what are we supposed to do when it’s this hot? Not to mention, those seats _killed_ my back.” Keith hissed, sitting up in the bed and holding his back.

“If you wanted a massage so bad, you could have just said so,” Lance winked at Keith in the darkness. “I am pretty good at them…” Keith rolled his eyes, but turned his back to Lance. He took it as an invitation and started working his fingers, earning a sigh from the other paladin.

“Fine, you’re actually okay at this… a little lower, please,” Keith whispered as if someone could hear them. Lance felt something odd at the sensation of his hands on bare skin and Keith’s occasional sounds of praise. Heat collected low in his stomach and his breathing shortened. After about ten minutes of slow circles on Keith’s back, Lance awkwardly shifted back.

To be honest, he hadn’t really known what had sparked his invitation to like, rub his hands all over Keith. Lance didn’t even give massages. Hunk was always the one who was good at that stuff. And yet, something made Lance feel like he could do anything at the moment.

“Um. You good?” for the first time, Lance struggled to speak. His voice sounded high and choked. Keith turned his headed and gave a rare smile. That smile stirred something in Lance yet again. They held each other’s gaze for what felt like forever; and perhaps from lack of sleep, they leaned closer to each other. Keith’s breath was warm on Lance’s mouth. He felt a pull, a need to push them together and feel the warmth all over.

“Just kiss me already, idiot,” Keith breathed. Lance inhaled deeply and softly pressed their lips together, though all he wanted to do was kiss Keith rough and hard and take in as much as he could. The other paladin raised a hand to Lance’s jaw, thumb pressing into skin; Lance carefully settled his hands at Keith’s waist. Keith hummed a sound of approval as skin made contact on skin.

_He literally has rock hard abs. How is this fair?_ Lance thought to himself as he slowly moved his hands around Keith’s abdomen, wanting desperately to touch everything. At the same time, the slow, gentle pace of the kiss was warm and comforting. Lance felt like he was melting into Keith’s arms.

They came apart for a second. The next kiss was different, with tongues meeting and soft noises being shared between them. This time, both grabbed desperately at any skin they found, running their hands across the expanses of their bodies and combing through hair. At some point Keith had pushed Lance down so he was lying flat on the bed. Keith pressed down and Lance yelped, abruptly breaking the kiss. He really did not want for this to get awkward, or for it to go too far.

“We should try to sleep. Y’know, negotiations tomorrow…” he trailed off. Keith looked disappointed.

“I’m sorry, I- should I have done that? I didn’t mean…” Keith’s eyes looked glassy and he quickly moved off of Lance.

“No, uh, you didn’t do anything wrong! In fact, you did everything right, haha! I- I’m just, uh…” Lance suddenly felt extremely exposed in only his boxers. “I just gotta sleep, man. But trust me,” Lance shifted back closer to Keith, smiling softly, “that was nice, okay? I… I’m _happy_.”

Keith nodded silently. The warmth of the room now wasn’t unbearable, it was simply filling the space. The sound of shifting blankets was the only noise the two of them made. Yet the silence was comfortable; shy smiles and slowing breaths occupied Lance’s thoughts. As he relaxed, he reached for Keith’s hand. The squeeze from the other boy felt familiar, like he had been holding on all this time.

* * *

 When they successfully reached an agreement (they seemed to work much better now that the two paladins had sorted out their feelings), Lance and Keith boarded the ship once again with a sense of accomplishment. Lance had argued for about ten minutes that they should _totally_ make an entrance, with Keith swooped up in his arms. Keith had retorted that Lance’s skinny arms couldn’t even lift him in the first place. They finally decided to walk in normally and hold off on confessions of love.

Well, for now at least.

“I’m really proud of you two. That’s gotta be one of the smoothest missions you’ve ever had,” Shiro smiled warmly. “I don’t know what you did, but keep on doing it, I guess.” Lance gave a knowing smirk to Keith, who in turn tried to hide a small laugh. _Cool, permission granted to kiss Keith!_

“I’d say it was definitely a _bonding_ moment for us, Shiro. Almost as good as when you cradled me in your arms…” Lance divulged. While Pidge and Hunk looked suspicious and the others confused, Keith erupted.

“I knew it! I knew you remembered!” he exclaimed, though he seemed fairly giddy, not angry, to the team’s surprise. Lance laughed and received a friendly shove from Keith.

How could Lance have forgotten? It was then that his pulse had quickened and his throat felt tight, all for the first time. He had shoved it down; he had tried to forget the feeling. He had felt it again when they had gotten close, Lance’s fingers smoothing out the muscles in Keith’s back. That time, he chose not to push it away. The warmth overcame him. In front of the others, he reached out for Keith’s hand yet again.

Lance was glad he hadn’t forgotten.


End file.
